Your Right to Know

Alan Michael Schwarzwalder, who put his stamp on government as a two-term state senator, top
mayoral adviser and lobbyist, was found dead on Monday in his home at 257 W. Hubbard Ave. He was
69.

Schwarzwalder, who had battled lymphoma for a number of years, was being examined by Franklin
County Coroner Jan Gorniak, and a cause of death was pending results from toxicology tests and a
review of medical records.

Known for his liberal leanings, Schwarzwalder was elected to the Ohio Senate in 1976 after
defeating incumbent Don Woodland in the Democratic primary. He won re-election in 1980 against
Republican Fred L. Morrison.

Schwarzwalder served in the Senate from 1977 to 1985, losing his seat in the 1984 election to
Eugene Watts, a Republican who capitalized on Schwarzwalder’s support of Gov. Richard F. Celeste’s
income-tax increase in 1983. Watts and Republicans also attacked Schwarzwalder in TV ads because he
was called to testify as a character witness for a former classmate at North High School — the
notor-ious rapist Edward Jackson.

Despite Schwarzwalder’s protests that he in no way supported Jackson, the ads took their toll
and marked a turning point in local politics, according to David Leland, former chairman of the
Ohio Democratic Party who served in the legislature with Schwarzwalder.

“That’s when the really negative campaigning began and marked a change in the way campaigns were
run in this community,” Leland said.

Richard C. Pfeiffer Jr., who served in the Senate with Schwarzwalder and now is Columbus city
attorney, had known him since boyhood. He remembered his former colleague as a passionate lawmaker,
true to his liberal principles.

“He was very intense about issues,” Pfeiffer said. “He was interested in utilities,
social-justice issues, and he provided votes to raise the income tax and allow collective
bargaining.”

After his Senate loss, Schwarzwalder left Columbus for legal and management positions in Chicago
and Washington, D.C., with XO Communications, MCI and U.S. Sprint.

But he was back in Columbus in 2004 when Mayor Michael B. Coleman hired him as chief of staff, a
post he left after about a year to head up the Environmental Stewardship Office, which was jointly
funded by the city and the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio.

Schwarzwalder got into politics naturally, following the path of his father, Alan, who was a
Columbus Municipal Court judge from 1954 to 1971.

Schwarzwalder earned a degree in political science from Ohio State University in 1965 and
graduated from OSU’s law school in 1970. He served in the Peace Corps from 1965 to 1967, teaching
in Tanzania.

Schwarzwalder, twice divorced, is survived by daughters Betsy and Abby, both living in
California, and by a son, Sam, in the Washington, D.C., area.